Sluice Issue #2

Sluice  | by Arthur H. Manners

Issue #2

Things to share this week

1. Music: A Thousand Kisses Deep by Leonard Cohen. One of those songs that makes you feel nostalgic for things you never experienced. For some reason it makes me think of Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Bell Jar. I dunno, you tell me why.2. Books: Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. This book caused what is probably the biggest shift to my lifestyle in years. More of a recipe book of suggestions for cutting distractions out of your life, it's very much against the 'productivity craze', focusing instead on freeing your time so you can live more deliberately. The structure of my morning 'to-do' and 'might-do' lists came from here, as did my distraction-free smartphone. It's also light on the preach, which is refreshing.  3. Apps: Freedom App. Do yourself a favour and buy the lifetime license for this right now. (It does have a free trial. Also there's probably alternative apps that do the same thing.) Freedom allows you to schedule intervals where the internet is disabled, along with distracting apps and programs. The only way to disable Freedom during a session is to restart the machine. The license covers multiple devices, so I put it on my computer and phone. I now have Freedom on during my morning writing sessions. It is magic. It is just you and the word processor. All hail Freedom.4. Books: Roget's Thesaurus. This one is pretty ancient, first published in 1852 and revised many times since. I hadn't heard of this until recently, which hurts my head given how useful it is. In Peter Mark Roget's own words, the book is a 'classed catalogue of words' — though not in the usual manner of a thesaurus. Instead, it's grouped by concepts such as 'Space' or 'Organic Matter' or 'Means of Communicating Ideas'. It also includes an alphabetical index, meaning you can find a word that's on the tip of your tongue: 'I know it starts with Cha....' If you write anything, or do a lot of crosswords, get this. (And no, an internet thesaurus is not necessarily better. Accessing the internet while doing focused work is inviting distraction. A real book is a self-contained, finite resource with minimal avenues of distraction.)5. TV/Film: Inside Bill's Brain on Netflix. This short docuseries focuses on Bill Gates and how his brain works. This one really absorbed me. The guy reads a bag of heavy books per week, and can read 150 pages an hour with 90% retention. (Why are the rest of us even here?) I was also fascinated by his relationship with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who couldn't have been more different from Bill. I'll be looking more into Allen, who seems like much more of a generalist and big-picture thinker. 

Until next time, be good.

Best regards,

Art

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